摘 要

成长小说《天使，望故乡》是二十世纪美国小说家托马斯·沃尔夫长篇自传体小说系列的第一部也是最负盛名的一部，同一系列的另外三部分别为《时间与河流》、《网与石》、《你不能再回家》。小说被看作是一部讲述了主人公尤金从出生到成年的心路历程的故事。主人公在出生那一刻起深感孤独的痛苦，并最终选择离开家乡去探索未知的世界。本文则着重分析了主人公尤金如何一步步走出孤独去追求独立与自由，分别从家庭、学校和社会三个角度剖析主人公的成长过程，并进一步揭示了作者沃尔夫塑造尤金这一形象的积极意图——为小说中弥漫的灰暗色彩增添一抹暖意和一丝希望。

关键词：《天使，望故乡》；孤独；自由；独立

Abstract

As the first and the most renown novel written by the famous American writer Thomas Wolfe from the early 20th century, Look Homeward, Angel considered both autobiographical and with a strong touch of personal development, has brought Wolfe huge reputation, with three other novels published as a set including Of Time and the River, The Web and the Rock, You Can’t Go Home Again. The novel Look Homeward, Angel can be seen as a psychological formation of its protagonist, Eugene Gant, whom the character himself believed was born as a stranger into a world of lost and finally decided to leave his hometown for the exploration of unknown, new world outside. This paper will define the value of this novel by focusing on how Eugene managed to walk out of this fate of solitude for the pursuit of freedom and independence, from three perspectives of family, school, and society. Furthermore, the writer’s intention of forming the character of Eugene is discussed in this paper afterwards, which is to lighten the shade of loneliness permeating throughout this novel with a touch of warm and a ray of hope.

Key Words: Look Homeward, Angel; solitude; freedom; independence

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Thomas Wolfe and his works 1

1.2 Literature review 2

2 Growth in Solitude 5

2.1 Born into a broken family 5

2.2 Alienated and out of place at school 7

2.3 Homeless and famished after entering the society 8

3 Pursuit of Independence and Freedom 10

4 Eugene: A Ray of Hope in a Lost World 12

5 Conclusions 13

References 14

Acknowledgements 15

Road to Independence in Solitude: Eugene in Look Homeward, Angel

1 Introduction

In literary criticism, bildungsroman, a more technical term for coming-of-age story, is “a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood, in which character change is extremely important” (Dinitia, 2000). Of all themes that may appear in that genre, growth in solitude is among the ones most favored by novelists. Born in the early twentieth century, Thomas Wolfe was considered a real master of language after the publication of his first novel Look Homeward, Angel, in which the writer’s passion for expressing himself and his skillful mastery of language, as well as the solitary life of its protagonist, Eugene, have won him great reputation, and incurred strict criticism at the same time.

The intention of this paper conducts an interpretation of the text Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe on the pursuit for mental independence and freedom of its protagonist Eugene Gant’s, from three perspectives of family, school and society, aiming to further explore Eugene’s unique personality of perseverance and facing at future with sanguinity. Therefore, an elaboration on the themes of living in estrangement and isolation is carried on, as well as revealing the writer’s purpose to present to us such a gloomy yet inspiring and charming figure of Eugene Gant.

1.1 Thomas Wolfe and his works

If we look back on the history of modern American literature, the 20th century is highlighted by the Lost Generation and the Beat Generation, during which the 1920s is considered the most glorious and productive years owing to the tremendous amount of brilliant men of letters together with their literary works. The Lost Generation has never failed to be one of the most favored topics for people at that time, and even nowadays, a great number of us still take delight in talking about influential writers belonging to the Lost Generation, such as Theodore Dreiser, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway. However, Thomas Wolfe has been virtually neglected and left to molder.

As one of the most prominent modern novelists in America, Thomas Clayton Wolfe has marveled the whole world with his spectacular literary achievements in his short-lived life. Before and after his death, Wolfe has completed four lengthy novels as well as many short stories, dramatic works, and novellas. For his long novels, Wolfe has received both fame and blame; whereas for his other works, there seems to be a relatively harmonious picture among reviewers reckoning some of these works are indeed impressive yet lamenting the limited influence they have left to this world. In the history of American literature, Thomas Wolfe can be put on a par with his contemporary but senior writers such as Sinclair Lewis, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner and F. Scott. Fitzgerald, the first three of whom were celebrated as Nobel Prize winners for literature, and the last one regarded as “the spokesman of the Jazz age” (Yang，2009). Therefore, Thomas Wolfe’s literary achievements are indisputably of great importance.

Among all writers from the Lost Generation, Thomas Wolfe has developed his own ways of storytelling. When it comes to describing family and society, Wolfe does not merely surprise us with his marvelous skill of language but also express his unique psychological understanding towards individual and their lives. Although he takes a somewhat negative attitude towards modern people pursuing their dreams, it can still be tangibly found that instead of falling into self-pity and depression Wolfe is more likely to encourage people to face loneliness directly with a fearless and indefatigable spirit. Above all, Wolfe has made a positive and profound contribution to the reconstruction of the post-war generation on their outlooks of life, and to our contemplation on the significance of individual existence.

1.2 Literature review

After publication, the novel has become one of the bestsellers in America, receiving massive approbation from the literary world. Since the 1940s, literary critics have conducted researches and analysis on the novel’s writing style of autobiography, technique of stream of consciousness, which have produced fruitful outcomes in the study of Thomas Wolfe and his works. There also emerged a collection of excellent articles exploring the themes of his works, which are later discovered by a bunch of outstanding scholars adopting a new perspective of criticism---psychoanalysis, and concluded the main themes of estrangement, self-exile, death and love as Wolfe’s most favored choices.

Despite its enduring popularity, the novel has also become a focus of critical concern at the same time. Due to its lengthiness and sprawling style, the book has incurred harsh criticism from the literary critical community. There are literary critics, Harold Bloom and James Wood among them, viewing Wolfe’s work as undisciplined and largely "formless autobiography" (Harold, 1987). The renowned critic Bernard De Voto has hurled a string of outspoken and sometimes provocative comments on Thomas Wolfe as well as his writing, accusing Wolfe of ignoring the coherence among various elements of the novel, loading his writing with fancy phrases and purposeless words. Although De Voto’s criticism to some extent holds water, the contemporary author William Faulkner considered Wolfe as “the greatest talent of their generation for aiming higher than any other writer”. Paschal Reeves, an American researcher and editor, once called this novel a “sensation”, and described it as “having struck the literary world by storm”. Until now, Wolfe’s works have invariably been favored by a great number of American readers, and a heated object in the literary circle.

Early in the Chinese literary world, Thomas Wolfe and his works were mostly ignored compared with his contemporary writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner (Liu，2007). With various Chinese versions of his writings being published, there has been a substantial increase in the number of viewers and men of letters devoting some study to this brilliant master and his posthumous masterpieces. In a book entitled Thomas Wolfe: The Lost Giant written by Liu Jiyuan in 2013, an integrated analysis has been made on Thomas Wolfe and his four famous novels including Look Homeward, Angel (1929), Of Time and the River (1935), The Web and the Rock (1939), and You Can't Go Home Again (1940), from various perspectives of character, theme, narration, imagery, and politics. Besides, there are a dozen of master’s theses and more than forty periodical papers on Wolfe and his works, Look Homeward, Angel (1929) as his masterpiece, from different angles. On the study of themes, such papers as The Solitude in Look Homeward, Angel written by Yang Yanlan, and Interpreting the Sense of Isolation: Eugene in Look Homeward, Angel co-authored by He Lingfei and Chen Xu, have put their focus on the loneliness permeating the novel, from the feeling of Eugene, extending to the whole family, and further raising to the level of referring to it as part of the human nature. On writing styles and techniques, viewers like Liu Jiyuan and Gao Hongxia have unfolded us in their co-worked study On Thomas Wolfe’s Language and Narrative Style, a combination of poetic language and prose style, of realism and stream of consciousness. In addition, several newly emerged types of interpretations on Look Homeward, Angel have opened up more ways of thinking. In Interpreting the Guiding Figures during Eugene’s Growth, its author Li Mengqi has conducted an analysis in detail on the influences W. O. Gant, Margaret, Ben, and Laura left on Eugene’s growth, and how their inter-relationships pushed forward the plot development.